It took three vehicles and four people to deliver the goods Tuesday morning when the Monmouth College Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) made its annual canned goods and angel tree donations to the Monmouth community.

      Organized by Katherine Hinman (tennis, Elmhurst, Ill.), Connor McDonald (baseball, Tremont, Ill.) and Beka Wollenburg (track, Aledo, Ill.) the Scots' canned goods drive was part of the Midwest Conference's annual canned food challenge, in which the league's 10 member institutions found creative ways to collect nonperishable food items for local food pantries. Monmouth may have finished second in the third annual competition, but the Scots were No. 1 in Monmouth's Jamieson Community Center's books after Monmouth's SAAC advisers and coaches Elizabeth Demara (women's lacrosse) and Brian Jordan (tennis) teamed with student-athletes Darice Brooks (soccer, Freeport, Ill.) and Nate Jacobs (golf, Lexington, Ill.) to deliver the more than 2,000 cans and cash equivalent on a bitterly cold Tuesday morning.

      "The canned food drive was a great success this year," reported Brooks, a junior exercise science major. "We had many more donations and a positive response from our dorm-storming night. Many other clubs helped out in our drive to provide the Jamieson Center a variety of food for families in need." 

      The Scots "elves" didn't rest after delivering the canned goods. Instead they loaded up their van one last time and delivered donated gifts to local special needs residents via the Warren Achievement Center. Organized by Brooks, Jacobs and Andrew Domkuski (swimming, Towanda, Ill.), the campus and community teamed up to provide gifts for more than 30 residents in need.

      "The community, college staff, faculty and students opened their hearts," said Brooks. "Most of the people who needed gifts do not have family in the area, or any family at all, so this will really make them feel like we're their family." 

      The feeling of family also permeated those delivering the canned goods and angel tree gifts.

      "We really love having opportunities like this to interact and help the people around us, and it's always fun seeing these projects come together so well like they did today," said Jacobs, a senior business administration major. "We restarted an Angel Tree project this year and it went pretty well for it being our first time in a few years. These are just a couple of projects that show off the relationship our student-athletes have with the Monmouth community."